Thou shalt in any wise rebuke
thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.Leviticus 19:17.

THE whole verse reads thus: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in
thy heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin
upon him." In the margin, as those of you who have Bibles with marginal
notes can see, the last words of the verse are rendered, "that thou
bear not sin for him." And this, I am satisfied, is the correct translation.
The idea is this - That men are bound to reprove their neighbors for sin,
lest they become partakers with them, or accessory to their sin.

In speaking from these words, I design to pursue the following order:
-

I. To show the reasons for the rule laid down by and in the
test.

II. Show to whom the rule is applicable.

III. Mention several exceptions which God has made to the
rule,
or classes of persons who are not to be reproved for their sins.

IV. The manner of performing this duty.

V. Several specific applications of the principles established.

I. I am to show the reasons for the rule.

1. Love to God plainly requires this. If we really love God, we shall
of course feel bound to reprove those that hate and abuse him and break
his commands. If I love the government of the country, should I not reprove
and rebuke a man who should abuse or revile the government! If a child
loves his parents will he not of course reprove a man that abuses his parents
in his hearing?

2. Love to the universe will lead to the same thing. If a man love the
universe, if he be actuated by universal benevolence, he knows that sin
is inconsistent with the highest good of the universe, and that it is calculate
to injure and ruin the whole if not counteracted; that its direct tendency
is to overthrow the order and destroy the happiness of the universe. And
therefore, if he see this doing, his benevolence will lead him to reprove
and oppose it.

3. Love to the community in which you live, is another reason. Not only
love to the universe at large, but love to the particular people with which
you are connected, should lead you to reprove sin. Sin is a reproach to
any people, and whoever commits it goes to produce a state of society that
is injurious to every thing good. His example has a tendency to corrupt
society, to destroy its peace, and to introduce disorder and ruin, and
it is the duty of every one who loves the community to resist and reprove
it.

4. Love to your neighbor demands it. Neighbor, here, means any body
that sins within the reach of your influence; not only in your presence,
but in your neighborhood, if your influence can reach him, or in your nation,
or in the world. If he sins he injures himself, and therefore if we love
him we shall reprove his sins. Love to the intemperate induces us to warn
him of the consequences of his course. Suppose we see our neighbor exposed
to a temporal calamity, say his house on fire. True love will induce us
to warn him and not to leave him to perish in the flames, especially if
we saw him inclined to persist in his course, and stay in the burning house,
we should expostulate earnestly with him, and not suffer him to destroy
himself, if we could possibly prevent it. Much more should we warn him
of the consequences of sin, and reprove him, and strive to turn him, before
he destroys himself.

5. It is cruel to omit it. If you see your neighbor sin, and you pass
by and neglect to reprove him, it is just as cruel as if you should see
his house on fire, and pass by and not warn him of it. Why not? If he is
in the house, and the house burns, he will lose his life. If he sins and
remains in sin, he will go to hell. Is it not cruel to let him go unwarned
to hell? Some seem to consider it not cruel to let a neighbor go on in
sin till the wrath of God comes on him to the uttermost. Their feelings
are so tender that they cannot wound him by telling him of his sin and
his danger. No doubt, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Instead
of warning their neighbor of the consequences of sin, they actually encourage
him in it.

6. To refuse to do it is rebellion against God. For any one to see rebellion
and not to reprove it or lift his hand to oppose it, is itself rebellion.
It would be counted rebellion by the laws of the land. The man who should
know of a treasonable plot, and did not disclose it or endeavor to defeat
it, would be held an accessory, and condemned as such by law. So if a man
sees rebellion breaking out against God, and does not oppose it, or make
efforts to suppress it, he is himself a rebel.

7. If you do not reprove your neighbors for their sin, you are chargeable
with their death. God holds us chargeable with the death of those whom
we suffer to go on in sin without reproof, and it is right he should. If
we see them sin, and make no opposition, and give no reproof, we consent
to it, and countenance them in it. If you see a man preparing to kill his
neighbor, and stand still and do nothing to prevent it, you consent, and
are justly chargeable as accessory; in the eye of God and the eye of law,
you are justly chargeable with the same sin. So if you see a man committing
any iniquity, and do nothing to resist it, you are guilty with him. His
blood will be upon his own head, but at whose hand will God require it?
What says God respecting a watchman? "Son of man, I have set thee
a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word
at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked
man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from
his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will
I require at thy hand." This is true of all men. If you suffer a neighbor,
who is within reach of your influence, to pass on in sin unwarned, he will
die in his iniquity, but his blood shall be required at your hand.

8. Your silence encourages him in sin. He is authorized to infer from
your silence that you approve his sin, or, at least, that you do not care
for it. Especially if he knows you are a professor of religion. It is an
old maxim that silence is consent. Sinners do regard your silence as a
virtual sanction of what they do.

9. By reproving your neighbor who sins, you may save him. What multitudes
have been reformed by timely reproof. Most of those who are saved, are
saved by somebody's rebuking them for their sins and urging them to repentance
you may be instrumental in saving any man, if you speak to him, and reprove
him, and pray for him, as you ought. How many instances there are, where
a single reproof has been to the transgressor like the barbed arrow in
his soul, that rankled, and rankled, the poison whereof done up his spirits,
until he submitted to God. I have known instances where even a look of
reproof has done the work.

10. If you do not save the individual reproved, your reproof may save
somebody else that may be acquainted with the fact. Such cases have often
occurred, where the transgressor has not been reclaimed, but others have
been deterred from following his example by the rebukes directed to him.
Who can doubt that, if professors of religion were faithful in this duty,
men would fear encountering their reproofs, and that fear would deter them
from such conduct, and multitudes who now go on unblushing and unawed,
would pause and think, and be reclaimed and saved? Will you, with such
an argument for faithfulness before you, let sinners go on unrebuked till
they stumble into hell?

11. God expressly requires it. The language of the text is, in the original,
exceedingly strong. The word is repeated, which is the way in which the
Hebrew expresses a superlative, so as to leave no doubt on the mind, not
the least uncertainty as to the duty, nor any excuse for not doing it.
There is not a stronger command of God in the Bible than this. God has
given it the greatest strength of language that he can. "Thou shalt
in any wise rebuke him," that is, without any excuse, "and not
bear his sin," not be accessory to his ruin. It is a maxim of law,
that if a man knows of a murder about to be committed and does not use
means to prevent it, he shall be held accessory before the fact. If he
knows of murder which has been done, and does not endeavor to bring the
criminal to justice, he is accessory after the fact. So by the law of God,
if you do not endeavor to bring a known transgressor to repentance, you
are implicated in the guilt of his crime, and are held responsible at the
throne of God.

12. If you do it in a right manner, you will keep a conscience void
of offense in regard to your neighbor, whatever may be his end. And you
cannot do this without being faithful in the reproof of sin. A man does
not live conscientiously, towards God or man, unless he is in the habit
of reproving transgressors who are within his influence. This is one grand
reason why there is so little conscience in the church. In what respect
are professors of religion so much in the habit of resisting their consciences,
as in regard to the duty of reproving sin? Here is one of the strongest
commands in the Bible, and yet multitudes do not pay any attention to it
at all. Can they have a clear conscience? They may just as well pretend
to have a clear conscience, and get drunk every day. No man keeps the law
of God, or keeps his conscience clear, who sees sin and does not reprove
it. He has additional guilt, who knows of sin and does not reprove it.
He breaks two commandments. First, he becomes accessory to the transgression
of his neighbor, and then he disobeys an express requirement by refusing
to reprove his neighbor.

13. Unless you reprove men for their sins, you are not prepared to meet
them in judgment. Are you prepared to meet your children in the judgment,
if you have not reproved nor chastised them, nor watched over their morals?
"Certainly not," you say. But why? "Because God has made
it my duty to do this, and he holds me responsible for it." Very well.
Then take the case of any other man that sins under your eye, or within
reach of your influence, and goes down to hell, and you have never reproved
him. Are you not responsible? Oh, how many are now groaning in hell, that
you have seen commit sin, and have never reproved, and now they are pouring
curses on your head because you never waned them. And how can you meet
them in judgment?

14. Unless you do this, you are not prepared to meet God. How many there
are who profess to love God, and yet never so much as pretend to obey this
command. Are such people prepared to meet God? When he says, "Thou
shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor," - that is, without any excuse.

II. To whom is this command addressed? Manifestly, to all men that have
neighbors. It was addressed to all the people of Israel, and through them
to all who are under the government of God - to high and low, rich and
poor, young and old, male and female, and every individual who is under
the government of God, or bound to obey his commands.

III. Some exceptions to the universal application of this law. He that
made the law has a right to admit of exceptions. And the rule is binding
in all cases, unless they come within the exceptions. There are some exceptions
to the rule before us, laid down in the Bible.

1. God says, "Rebuke not a scorned, lest he hate thee." There
is a state of mind, where a person is known to be a scorner, a despiser
of religion, a hater of God, and has no regard to his law, and is not to
be influenced by any fear or care for God, why should you reprove him?
It will only provoke a quarrel, without any good resulting to anybody.
Therefore God makes such a character an exception to the rule.

2. Jesus Christ says, "Cast not your pearls before swine, least
they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
Whatever else this passage means, it appears to me to mean this, that sometimes
men are in such a state of mind that to talk to them about religion would
be at once irrational and dangerous, like casting pearls before swine.
They have such a contempt for religion, and such a stupid, sensual, swinish
heart, that they will trample all your reproofs under their feet, and turn
upon you in anger besides. It is lawful to let such men go on; and your
not meddling with them will be greater wisdom than to attack them. But
great charity should be used, not to suppose those of your neighbors to
be swine, who do not deserve it, and who might be benefited by suitable
reproof.

3. Men who are in a settled state of self-righteousness, it is best
to let alone. Christ said of the Scribes and Pharisees, "Let them
alone, they be blind leaders of the blind." That is, they were so
full of pride and conceit, so satisfied of their own wisdom and goodness,
that they cannot be reached by any reproof, and it seems best to let them
alone; for if you begin to reprove them, you might as well face a northwester
as think of making an impression on them. They will face you down, and
are so full of arguments, and cavils, and bullyings, that you gain nothing.

IV. The manner in which this duty is to be performed.

1. It should be done always in the name of the Lord. It is important
when you reprove your neighbor for sin, always to make him feel it is not
a personal controversy with you, not a matter of selfishness on your part,
or claiming any right of superiority, or to lord it over him, but that
you reprove him in the name of the Lord, for the honor of God, because
he has broken his law. If, by your manner, you in any way make the impression
on his mind that it is a personal controversy, or done for any private
motive with you, he will invariably rise up against you, and resist, and
perhaps retort upon you. But if you make the impression on his mind that
it is done in the name of God, and bring him right up before God as an
offender, he will find it exceedingly difficult to get away from you without
at least confessing that he is wrong.

2. It should always be done with great solemnity. Above all things,
do not make him think that it is just a little thing that you hint to him,
but make him feel that it is for a sin against God you are reproving him,
and that it is what in your view ought to be looked upon as an awful thing.

3. You should use more or less severity, according to the nature of
the case, and the circumstances under which the sin was committed.

(1.) The relation of the parties. Your relation to the person who has
been guilty of sin, should be properly regarded. If a child is going to
reprove a parent, he should do it in a manner suited to the relation he
stands in. If a man is going to reprove a magistrate, or if an individual
is about to rebuke an elder, the apostle says it must be in that way, "entreat
him as a father." This relation should enter deeply into the manner
of administering reproof. The relation of parents and children, of husbands
and wives, of brothers and sisters, should all be regarded. So the ages
of the parties, their relative circumstances in life. For servants to reprove
their masters in the same manner as their equals is improper. This direction
should never be overlooked or forgotten, for if it is, the good effect
of reproof will be all lost. But remember, that no relations in life, or
relative circumstances of the parties, take away the obligation of this
duty. Whatever be the relation, you are to reprove sin, and are bound to
do it in the name of the Lord. Do it, not as if you were complaining or
finding fault for a personal injury committed against yourself, but as
a sin against God. Thus, when a child reproves a parent for sin, he is
not to do it as if he was expostulating with him for any injury done to
himself, but with an eye to the fact that the parent has sinned against
God, and therefore, with all that plainness, and faithfulness, and pungency
that sin calls for.

(2.) Reproof should be regulated by the knowledge which the offender
has of his duty. If the individual is ignorant, reproof should be more
in the form of instruction, rather than of severe rebuke. How do you do
with your little child? You instruct him and strive to enlighten his mind
respecting his duty. You proceed, of course, very differently from what
you would do with a hardened offender.

(3.) With reference also to the frequency of the offense. You would
reprove a first offense in a very different manner from what you would
use towards an habitual transgressor. If a person is accustomed to sin,
and knows that it is wrong, you use more severity. If it is the first time,
perhaps a mere allusion to it may be sufficient to prevent a repetition.

(4.) So, also, you are to consider whether he has been frequently reproved
for the sin. If he has not only often committed the sin, but been often
reproved, and yet has hardened his neck, there is the greater necessity
for using sharpness. The hardening influence of former reproofs resisted,
shows that no common expostulations will take hold. He needs to have the
terrors of the Lord poured upon him like a storm of hail.

4. Always show that your temper is not ruffled. Never manifest any displeasure
at the transgressor, which he can possibly construe into personal displeasure
at himself. It is often important to show your strong displeasure at what
he is doing. Otherwise he will think you are not in earnest. Suppose you
reprove a man for murder, in a manner not expressing any abhorrence of
his crime, you would not expect to produce an effect. The manner should
be suited to the nature of the crime, yet so as not to lead him to think
you have any personal feeling. Here is the grand defect in the manner of
reproving crime, both in the pulpit and out of it. For fear of giving offense,
men do not express their abhorrence of the sin, and therefore transgressors
are so seldom reclaimed.

5. Always reprove in the Spirit of God. You should always have so much
of the Holy Ghost with you, that when you reprove a man for sin, he will
feel as if it came from God. I have known cases, where reproof from a Christian
in that state has cut the transgressor to the heart, and stung like the
arrow of the Almighty, and he could not get rid of it till he repented.

6. There are many different ways of giving reproof so as to reach the
individual reproved. Sometimes it can be done best by sending a letter,
especially if the person be at a distance. And there are cases where it
can be done so, even in your own neighborhood. I knew an individual who
chose this way of reprimanding a sea-captain for intemperance in crossing
the Atlantic. The captain drank hard, especially in bad weather, and when
his services were most wanted. The individual was in great agony, for the
captain was not only intemperate, but when he drank he was ill-natured,
and endangered the lives of all on board. He made it a subject of prayer.
It was a difficult case. He did not know how to approach the captain so
as to make it probable he should do good and not hurt; for a captain at
sea, you know, is a perfect despot, and has the most absolute power on
earth. After a while he sat down and wrote a letter, and gave it to the
captain with his own hand, in which he plainly and affectionately, but
faithfully and most pointedly, set forth his conduct, and the sin he was
committing against God and man. He accompanied it with much prayer to God.
The captain read it, and it completely cured him; he made an apology to
the individual, and never drank another drop of anything stronger than
coffee or tea on the whole passage.

7. Sometimes it is necessary to reprove sin by forming societies, and
getting up newspapers, and forming a public sentiment against a particular
sin, that shall be a continued and overwhelming rebuke. The Temperance
Societies, Moral Reform Societies, Anti-Slavery Societies, etc., are designed
for this end.

V. I will mention now some of the cases in which the principles are
applicable.

They are peculiarly applicable to those crimes which are calculated
to undermine the institutions of society, and to exert a wide-spread influence.
Such sins can only be held in check and put down by faithfulness in reproof.

1. Sabbath-breaking. If Christians would universally mark transgressors,
and rebuke them that trample on the Sabbath, they would do more to put
a stop to Sabbath-breaking than by all other means. If Christians were
united in this, how long do you suppose it would be before this sin would
be put down? If only a few were faithful, and constant and persevering,
they might do much. If only a few do it, and these only now and then, it
might not have much effect. But I believe if all professors of religion
were to do it, every grocery and grog shop, and oyster cellar, and fruit
stand, would be shut up. At all events, they are bound to do it, whatever
may be the result; and so long as they neglect their duty, they are chargeable
before God with all the Sabbath breaking in the city. If all the churches
and ecclesiastical bodies in the land were united to remonstrate with the
government, and would continue to do it, firmly, and in the name of the
Lord, do you suppose government would continue to violate the Sabbath with
their mail? I tell you, no. The church can do this, I believe, in one year,
if all were united throughout the country, and could speak out fully, in
the fear of God, and without any fear of man. No man who ever expected
to be elected to office again, would ever again advise the breaking of
the Sabbath. But now, while the church is divided, and not half in earnest,
there are so few speak out, that government despises them, and pays no
attention. Thus it is that the church connive at Sabbath-breaking, and
they are without excuse, till they speak out and rebuke their rulers, in
the name of Jehovah, for breaking his holy law.

2. Intemperance and rum-selling. Suppose every man in this city that
sells rum was continually subject to the rebukes which God requires; suppose
every man that passed by were to reprove him for his sin; how long could
he sell rum? If only the church were to do it; if that deacon and that
elder would do it, and every Christian would follow him with rebukes in
the name of the Lord for poisoning men to death with rum, he could not
go on and do it. Such a strong and decided testimony would soon drive him
from his trade of death. In self-defense he would have to yield to the
pressure of solemn rebuke.

3. Lewdness. This is a wide-spreading evil, that ought to be universally
rebuked. It should be rebuked unsparingly, not only from the pulpit, but
by the press, and in the street, till it be driven from its strong holds,
and made to hide itself in the chambers of hell.

4. Slavery. What! shall men be suffered to commit one of the most God-dishonoring
and most heaven-daring sins on earth, and not be reproved? It is a sin
against which all men should bear testimony, and lift up their voice like
a trumpet, till this giant iniquity is banished from the land and from
the world.

VI. I shall consider some of the difficulties which are sometimes raised
in the way of the performance of this duty.

1. It is often asked, Is it a duty to reprove my neighbor when there
is no prospect of doing any good? I answer, it may be very essential to
reprove sin in many cases where there is no prospect that the individual
whom you reprove will be benefited. As in cases where your silence would
be taken for connivance in his sin. Or where the very fact of his being
reproved may prevent others from falling into the like crime. Where the
offender comes properly under the description of a scorned or a swine,
there God has made an exception, and you are not bound to reprove. But
in other cases, duty is yours, consequences God's.

2. It is asked, Should I reprove strangers? Why not? Is not the stranger
your neighbor? You are not to reprove a stranger in the same way that you
would a familiar acquaintance; but the fact of his being a stranger is
not a reason why he should not be reproved, if he break the command of
God. If a man swear profanely, or break the Sabbath, in your presence,
his being a stranger does not excuse you from the duty and the responsibility
of administering reproof, or trying to bring him to repentance and save
his soul.

3. It is asked, Should we reprove a person when he is drunk? Generally
not: for when a person is drunk he is deranged. There may be cases where
it is proper, for the purpose of warning others. But so far as the drunkard
himself is concerned, as a general rule, it is not expedient. Yet there
are many cases where reproof to a man even when drunk, has taken such a
hold on his mind as to sober him, and turn him from his beastly sin.

4. Shall we reprove great men, and those who are above us in society,
and who may look down on us and on our reproofs with contempt? That does
not alter your duty. "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor,
and not bear sin for him." You should bear in mind the relation in
which he stands, and treat him accordingly. But still, if he sin against
God, it is your duty to reprove him in an appropriate manner.

REMARKS

1. Do not talk about people's sins, but go and reprove them. It is very
common to talk about people's sins behind their backs, but this is great
wickedness. If you want to folk about any person's sins, go and talk to
him about whom, and try to get him to repent and forsake them. Do not go
and talk to others against him behind his back, and leave him to go on
in his sins, unwarned to hell.

2. How few professors of religion are sufficiently conscientious to
practice this duty. I suppose there are thousands in this city, who never
think of doing it. Yes; professors of religion live in habitual disobedience
to this plain, and strongly expressed command of God. And then they wonder
why they do not have the spirit of prayer, and why there are not more revivals!
Wonder!

3. See why so few persons enjoy religion. They live in habitual neglect
of this command, making excuses, when God has said there shall be no excuse.
And how can they enjoy religion? What would the universe think of God,
if he should grant the joys of religion to such unfaithful professors?

4. We see that the great mass of the professors of religion have more
regard to their own reputation than to the requirements of God. The proof
is, that sooner than run the risk of being called censorious, or of getting
enemies by rebuking sin, they will let men go on in sin unrebuked, notwithstanding
God says, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor." But I
shall offend him if I reprove his sin. "In any wise rebuke him,"
says Jehovah. It shows that they have a greater fear of men than of God.
For fear at offending man, they run the risk of offending God. Yea, they
absolutely disobey God, in one of his plainest and strongest commandments,
rather than incur the displeasure of men by rebuking their sins.

5. No man has a right to say to us, when we reprove him for his sin,
that it is none of our business to meddle with him. How often do transgressors
tell faithful reprovers, they had better mind their own business and not
meddle with what does not concern them. And they are called meddlers and
busybodies, for interfering in other people's concerns. At the south, they
have got themselves into a great rage because we at the north are trying
to convince them of the wickedness of slavery. And they say it is none
of our business, that slavery is a matter peculiarly their own, and they
will not suffer anybody else to interfere with them, and they require us
to let them alone, and will not even allow us to talk about the subject.
And they want our northern legislatures to pass laws forbidding us to rebuke
our southern neighbors for their sin in holding men in slavery. God forbid
that we should be silent. Jehovah himself has commanded us to rebuke our
neighbor in any wise, let the consequences be as they may. And we will
rebuke them, though all hell should rise up against it.

Are we to hold our peace and be partakers in the sin of slavery, by
connivance, as we have been? God forbid. We will speak of it, and bear
our testimony against it, and pray over it, and complain of it to God and
man. Heaven shall know, and the world shall know, and hell shall know,
that ye protest against the sin, and will continue to rebuke it, till it
is broken up. God Almighty says, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy
neighbor," and we must do it.

So the rum-dealer is all the while pleading, "It is none of your
concern what I do; please to mind your own business, and let me alone."
But it is our business to reprove him when he dispenses his poison, and
it is everybody's concern, and every man is bound to rebuke his crime till
he gives it up, and ceases to destroy the lives and souls of his neighbors.

6. We see the importance of consistency in religion. If a man professes
to love God, he ought to have consistency enough to reprove those that
oppose God. If Christians were only consistent in this duty, many would
be converted by it, a right public sentiment would be formed, and sin would
be rebuked and forced to retire before the majesty of Christian rebuke.
If Christians were not such cowards, and absolutely disobedient to this
plain command of God, one thing would certainly come of it - either they
would be murdered in the streets as martyrs, because men could not bear
the intolerable presence of truth, or they would be speedily converted
to God.

What shall we say, then, to such professors of religion? Afraid to reprove
sinners! When God commands, not prepared to obey? How will they answer
it to God?

Now, beloved, will you practice this duty? Will you reprove sin faithfully,
so as not to bear sin for your neighbors? Will you make your whole life
a testimony against sin? Will you clear your souls, or will you hold your
peace and be weighed down with the guilt of all the transgressors around
you and within the sphere of your influence? God says, "Thou shalt
in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin for him."